Remember, that while Britain as a whole vote 52% in favor of Brexit, Scotland voted against. A hard Brexit could once again encourage the devolution movement. Also, Northern Ireland benefits from EU membership and a hard Brexit could get people there taking a hard look at leaving the UK if a good deal is presented to them.

It doesn't. However non-EU members who trade with the EU have to agree to terms agreeable to the EU. The whole point of Brexit was that the politicians publically promised they could deliver better terms than the UK had under EU membership. Other EU leaders made it publically clear no agreements had been made and that the UK would have to leave first then renegotiate after. That's a problem for an economy that does 50% of its trade with the EU.Do you think UK workers will benefit by replacing the EU, with its trade barriers and protections for labor with China? You should not. US labor has taken something like 70% loss of compensation through "globalization". They should expect an end to the NHS, replacing it with patchy private insurance and all sorts of financial instruments, an end to pensions, being replaced with savings accounts on your own.

Brexit is likely going to be the final nail in the coffin for English colonialism. The UK itself is as likely as not to fall apart. Scotland and Northern Ireland suddenly have really good reasons to leave.

It's happened before, Norway was part of Denmark, Belgium was part of the Netherlands (just to take European examples). The UK isn't sacred.

Because the U.K. has been part of the bloc since before it was the EEC, and their economy and policy making has evolved in that context.

Imagine having a smart phone. You don't actually need one, but you've had one from the beginning and it's become an integral part of your daily life. Now give it to me, you're going without because you didn't want to pay for it. How long will you go before you fall apart?

Norway is involved in several bilateral trade deals with the EU. It gets preferential treatment compared to non-EU nations in exchange for abiding by all EU regulations, though it has no say in what those regulations are and has to accept changes when they come.

The EU has spent the last two years trying to engage the UK about doing a similar deal. This has been met with "Give us better than EU-member rates and throw in all your GDPs as a sweetener, and we obey nothing". This went over about as well as you would expect. The deal agreed to in October was basically "the UK gets nothing, but can be a temporary Norway until Ireland gets settled, and maybe we can make some deals". it got rejected soundly by Parliament. Come March 29, the UK will have no economic relationship with the EU. At all. It won't be part of the EU, nor will it have any trade agreement in place to take over. So, no free movement of goods, no preferential tax and tariff rates, no automatic standards assumptions. Every damn thing coming out of Britain to the EU will be slamming into a massive economic wall of being treated like Malawi. At the very best, the UK will be forced to wait until its goods can be properly passed through customs with absolutely no preclearances and with a nice price hike to boot. They better hope Europeans are amazingly loyal to their brands to take the new higher prices and possible shortages in stride.

Plus all their goods from Europe are going to get hiked for the same reasons, just the other way. Britain hasn't been self-sufficient since the 1600s, first through empire and then through the European trade zone and then the EU. With free movement of goods, Britain hasn't had to produce lots of essentials in decades (and empire meant they were shakey on that well before WWII), since it is trivially easy for someplace else in Europe to do it. They are expected to run out of bog roll inside of a week. And beer before that. They make beer and toilet paper internally, but nowhere near enough for the country. And that's before we get to food and medicine, and a hell of a lot of other things they have gleefully let other EU nations produce for them. They are a toddler yelling they are about to leave home and take their Big Wheel out on the Interstate at rush hour. They don't have to stay in the house, but that doesn't mean they are going to be able to get a juice box on the I95 either.

The UK doesn't have to be part of the EU, but not being in the EU without any sort of trade deal is basically slathering their privates in steno and shoving a lit road flare down their pants.

politically incorrect squirrel:Moosedick Gladys Greengroin: Some of the "Moonshiners" claim to make Scotch whiskey, so......hey Mark and Digger, whatcha got?

The Kobe Beef you can get in the US isn't the same as what you get in Japan because American beef standards are

The Kobe beef you get in the US almost certain isn't Kobe beef since only a couple thousand head of cattle qualify and most of those are sold in Japan. It's as big a fraud as Extra Virgin Italian Olive Oil

runwiz:Remember, that while Britain as a whole vote 52% in favor of Brexit, Scotland voted against. A hard Brexit could once again encourage the devolution movement. Also, Northern Ireland benefits from EU membership and a hard Brexit could get people there taking a hard look at leaving the UK if a good deal is presented to them.

NI also voted hard for "remain". When drugs become scarce and food prices jump 20% - the current conservative estimate - even Protestants will start singing Amhrán na bhFiann

The prices will increase, almost certainly, and some trade deals will be nullified. But any retailer worth their salt will be going in to buy product at decent prices. Very few buyers for US companies have the foresight to do that in order to ensure their customers won't be hunting for Macallan in the same way people are trying to find Blanton's right now, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong by them.

runwiz:Remember, that while Britain as a whole vote 52% in favor of Brexit, Scotland voted against. A hard Brexit could once again encourage the devolution movement. Also, Northern Ireland benefits from EU membership and a hard Brexit could get people there taking a hard look at leaving the UK if a good deal is presented to them.

Re-unification has been consistently polling well above 50% across both communities in NI from some time. By the Good Friday Agreement, that should trigger a referendum. It's looking quite possibl ethat within five years the UK simply will not exist any more: Scotland will be independent and NI will be part of the Republic. And both will be back in the EU.

Norway has a free trade agreement with the EU which obliges it to follow most EU rules but gives it no influence over setting them. It is also in the Schengen Zone, allowing free movement with other Schengen states, which means most of the EU.

Norway is within the EEA and within Schengen (so, freedom of movement). And Norway chose their odd status in order to have its own fisheries and agriculture policy. Norway did not have, and still does not have, a significant industrial base or services industry, unlike the UK.

As a result, Norway has no industries that have become dependent on seamless JIT-supply chains that rely on almost zero paper work at border crossings. In short: your question reveals a complete ignorance of Norway's relationship with the EU, which is nowhere near comparable to the UK's right now and after a hard Brexit.

mrmopar5287:If tariffs are an issue, can Japanese whiskey rise to fill what demand there is for Scotch? There exists the possibility for the EU to source some very fine whiskies from Japan.

Nope. In that, Japan can't meet the demand for Japanese whisky that exists even today. The world suddenly realized that Japanese whisky is actually pretty decent, and the distilleries were caught flat footed. They're all going No Age Statement on their products because they can't meet demand with older stock. If we have to rely on Japan to meet global need without Scottish whisky in the picture, then we're going to be thirsty for some time to come.

Scotch Whisky is in some ways a very unique product, in fact it is made up of hundreds of unique products. Each single malt, single grain or blend is basically a different drink to the next one. The market for it worldwide relies on the difference in taste, quality and price to create demand for each of them.If the price becomes unbalanced in the EU due to farckwitted attempts to leave without a trade agreement other whisky producers may benefit from this. Irish whisky is probably in the best position to take advantage of such an event. It has diversified in product range in recent years despite all the whisky in the Republic being made at just 3 large distilleries. The spirit is casked and blended by different whisky companies afterwards.India makes many whiskies of their own and even Nepal blends Indian whisky for their own market. India could easily up production and expand into other markets.I can see why Scotland is concerned about its trade ties with the EU. Their biggest potential competitor will be remaining in easy trade mode inside the EU. In Asia they already have homegrown competition to deal with.

They don't. But the UK doesn't have a huge stash of oil money built up, which Norway does. And the UK was benefiting, as a whole, from the EU trade agreements. Pulling out of those agreements is like breaking any other contract...mortgage, car loan, business loan, etc...it has financial consequences.

Brexiters lied about the extent of those consequences, because SOVEREIGNTY! And dirty furriners.

Like the best lies, it had a kernel of truth. You give up some of your sovereignty to the bank when you sign a mortgage...that's true. It's like any other contract or financial deal.

You CAN walk away from the mortgage, and get your precious sovereignty back...but you don't get to live in the house anymore. AND your credit takes a hit...other future lenders find you a dodgier prospect than before, unsurprisingly.

Brexiters claim they'll all be living in a nicer house, and their credit rating will go up, after they tear up their existing mortgage/trade deal.

We'll see who was right, although I expect the Brexiteers to spend the next few decades continuing to lie about the results.

ayrlander:mrmopar5287: If tariffs are an issue, can Japanese whiskey rise to fill what demand there is for Scotch? There exists the possibility for the EU to source some very fine whiskies from Japan.

Nope. In that, Japan can't meet the demand for Japanese whisky that exists even today. The world suddenly realized that Japanese whisky is actually pretty decent, and the distilleries were caught flat footed. They're all going No Age Statement on their products because they can't meet demand with older stock. If we have to rely on Japan to meet global need without Scottish whisky in the picture, then we're going to be thirsty for some time to come.

We need some bright young American biochemist to figure out how to genetically engineer, say, kudzu, so you can ferment it into whiskey.

Pinko_Commie:mrmopar5287: If tariffs are an issue, can Japanese whiskey rise to fill what demand there is for Scotch? There exists the possibility for the EU to source some very fine whiskies from Japan.

Especially now that Japan had just done a trade deal with the EU.

/Loves me some Suntory

Still on my list to try...heard it's quite good. Concerned about the current over-production someone above mentioned, though...it cutting into quality?

A more accurate comparison would be Switzerland. They negotiated treaties to participate in the European Single Market (like non-EU members Norway and Icelend) and seem to be doing just fine without ever having joined the EU. Switzerland also passed their own immigration initiative to favor Swiss job applicants.

There is no reason the UK cannot accomplish similar arrangements that respect UK sovereignty.